my local track is in trouble...

[Hitchcock]

Racing Cancelled July 22 and 23

Kansas International Dragway is facing some very trying times due to the current economic conditions. Racers - this is very serious. There is a lack of participation by racers and spectators. The bottom line is that you have to make money to stay in business. The track has not been profitable for the last 5 years. Many other tracks around the country find themselves in similar circumstances and are asking the same questions about future sustainability. We need to try drastically different approaches in the immediate future to restore some fiscal soundness to the facility. It will take creative thinking and input from others. I will be meeting with the Simon family this weekend as well as the Racer Commission to try to chart a course where all will benefit.
Only one Summit race has been profitable this year. Our Summit ET program cannot continue on its current course. We are paying out way more than we are taking in, and that does not make good business sense. In the Super Pro class, when we guarantee a $2000 purse and we have been averaging 20 cars, those numbers don’t add up to a track that is going to be successful. The CDRA was a big money race, and it was not well attended by local racers. The recent Annual Summer National event was well attended by racers, but was not well attended by spectators. One suggestion is to open only on Saturdays and run Time Onlys with a Gamblers Race. I, as a racer, do not want to see bracket racing reduced to a series of Gamblers Races. Many tracks have simply chosen to run a Time Only format. Our track rental events have proven to be successful, and we expect to continue those in the future.
I have requested that individuals volunteer for the Racers Commission, but so far not enough people have stepped up to participate. The Racer Commission will meet 3 P.M. Saturday July 23rd at the track tower to discuss a way forward.
I will leave the “Questions for Dan” forum open for positive only comments and suggestions or it will go away. It really won’t matter WHO is managing the track if it closes -- the problems will still exist. This is your race track and you should have a say in it, please don’t sit on the sidelines on these important issues.

Dan and Dawn Bain
The Simon family

[BracketNova]

$2,000 for SuperPro...HolyCow. How much are your entries? My track only pays $1,000 with a $75 entry.

I would be happy to give them as many free listings on my website as they need for the rest of the year. This situation is one of the main reasons I made the site. That track isn't that horribly far from me, and I had no idea they were paying out double what my local trak pays.

PM me if there interested in putting races up on my site - I'll give you a code to give them.

Greg

[mytmouz]

Same as a lot of other places... Disposable income, ie, entry fee, fuel, etc. is severely limited due to the economy for a lot of people. Add in the extreme heat, flood and storm damage in a lot of areas of the country, and it is hard for the self financed racers to go play. I used to run 2&3 times a weekend, if I kept it together, up to 2007, now, it is about 4 times a year. My daily expenses are up, such as gas, but my income has not risen with it. Pretty sure I am not the only racer on this economic Titanic...

[John_Heard]

Sad to see, but I'm not surprised. There are a lot of reasons for this that we can point at, but it's kinda hard to say what is the best way to make it better. Certainly right now the heat is playing a part and probably one of the reasons Summer Nationals had a poor turnout - which is the one big race of the year at KID (money maker). Looking back, maybe things would have been better if he had moved it to a night race?

Drag Racing has a number of things moving against it, such as the economy, racers getting older and getting out of the sport, lack of younger guys/gals interested in the sport, cost of fuel... this stuff didn't happen overnight, it's been trending down for years.

KID/Wichita needs track improvements to bring in more racers - there are a number that won't run there but I have to say I've heard good things about how Dan has been doing pretty good with what he has to work with. But the real problem is getting the spectators in the gates = spectators bring the money that can pay for improvements.

[supernova]

We have 4 tracks that compete with each other for races and car count. One track ran brackets every weekend. Now, brackets are ran once a month. Times are tuff for everyone and doesn't look like it going to get better any time soon. The one track I go to the most is now doing more heads up and grudge racing than ever. Grudge racer will spend the money. The tracks around here are having 1 to 2 big races a yr instead of once a month.
It's just the sign of the times. And bad economic situation in tha US.

[425 Olds]

Cedar Falls Raceway (Iowa) is my home track and seems to be solvent. They run about 9-10 two day events a season with test and tunes in between. $80/single, $150/two day entry for Super Pro & Pro. They have a first round buy-back ($40). Run out both classes and the winnners race a box/nobox runoff for $1500. Payouts start with 2nd round winner.

They also run 4-5 Midnight Mania. This is mainly ricers (no idea of entry fees or number of cars.

Seems to be working.

[Fat 56 F100]

This trend seems to be all over, Our local track is having the same problems as everybody else.Super Pro and Pro have not had enough cars to fill the field.....buy backs in round two.......You guys all now how that is.

[ytnova]

Same problems here as well. Test and tune is only one night a week now, with 2 points nites a month during the spring only. After that, nothing until street nationals and nite of fire in october-november. The only thing I do see increasing is the number of people wanting to heads up race, but not bracket race. Tracks here are starting to do some low budget heads up stuff with only $300-$500 to win in a effort to bring up attendance.

[camaroman9]

It is definitely sad to see. Hopefully nothing like this happens with mokan, because my son loves going to the races, and it is only about a 10 minute drive from my house.

[Craig W.]

I've never understood the guaranteed high payouts for Super Pro. My local track is suffering like the rest, yet the owner continues to cater to the Super Pro racers. His biggest fan count was when running heads-up classes but the Super Pro racers didn't like us for some reason and talked the owner into killing the class. He wasn't paying us squat, so it wasn't a money issue.

Now he's not prepping the track hardly at all and he's losing more racers. Even jr. dragsters are having trouble hooking up.

Some tracks are branching out into tractor pulls, mud bog races, corn hole tournaments...anything to get people thru the gate. And it all has to be priced so that a family can afford to come. Kids under 12 should be free.

[camaroman9]

True story on the kids under 12 thing. I love taking my son to the races. If it was $20 for him to get into any of the tracks around here, we probably wouldn't go. I'm not going to pay $20 for my 3 year old to watch. If he was older, then i gladly would, but not at his age right now.

[MXrider13]

Here in South Florida we are doing ok, sadly its mixed though, I thought the dragstrips should gear more towards Nostalgia Drag Races since in Florida we have lots of Slingshots and Nostalgia Funny Cars but none of them are interested in doing it other than Lakeland who does Billetproof.
As for the kids it should be free for 12 and under. I think Countyline Dragway in Miami does that, and for my generation the people in there teens and 20s if they like cars they only care about the imports and street racing try to act like Vin Diesel and Paul Walker.

Its a tough situation right now, Im only 20 and I can only afford to take my S10 out once a month.

[HPDRIFTER]

I suggested to Dan at KID that he consider allowing people to race for Test & Tune prices if they sign a waiver saying that the track could keep any winnings that you might win.
I would certainly sign up for that. Anyone who races, expecting to win money on a regular basis is kidding himself.
I nevr heard back for him.

[John_Heard]

Biggest deal is how to figure out how to get more butts in the seats. Of course car count is important too, as each car brings X spectators.

Tonight sounds like MoKan is going to have a great show, just talked to Adam and they have 16 cars on the shootout roster. Ought to be some good races... Last year MoKan had 1500 spectators show for this race on a Friday night

[Craig W.]

My local track had a no entry fee race last weekend and it drew a big crowd. Lots of spectators too for some reason. Maybe it was free for everyone at the gate. Not sure. So people are interested but maybe money is just too tight right now.

Whatever Jim Howe is doing at I-40 Dragway in Crossville, TN, its working. Tons of spectators and racers. The index classes are packed.

There's also a good thing going at US-60 Dragway in Hardinsburg, KY. Index classes, limited 8.5, outlaw 8.5, Limited 10.5 and Pro Street. The payout is a percentage of the entry fees paid and sponsors are starting to kick in more. They had 25 8.5 cars there last month between the two classes. Seems like keeping a heads-up class in the high 5s will draw the racers. So far the rules are working there.